Baby Genie

I’m sorry I shoved a cupcake in your face: Cybermummy 2010 review

And a big thank you to the woman who told me that the Kiddicare bag I was hauling behind me at the train station, ankles giving way, sweat dripping, but still smiling, had given up and my Vodafone frisbee had burnt a hole in the bottom from it’s miles of contact with the pavement.

As someone (I forget who, the day was a little bit of a whirlwind), but someone in one of the content sessions said, you’ll lose a reader if your headline and first paragraph don’t capture them immediately.  And they’ll never come back.

If you’re still here, yey!  And please come back.  If you’re not then I have found another clever way of delivering this to you mwah ha ha!

The night before Cyerbmummy was like the night before your first day at big school.  I packed my bag – tickets, train booking, notepad, pen, lipsalve, comfy shoes, camera, cards, laptop, gifts for Huggies ladies (my kind sponsor).  It was going to be weighing me down but who cared.  I laid out my outfit, set my alarm, and went to bed.  Late.

I lay awake.  Butterflies tearing around my belly.

I woke up at 5am with a sharp intake of breath.  I hadn’t overslept.  Phew.

The train and tube journey was easy and I tweeted with excitable others on the journey.

I arrived on time for the Huggies breakfast (after missing the last Huggies lunch I felt triumphant).  We ate, chatted and played guess the baby from the pictures we’d all sent in.  I tried to make a good impression but felt nervous and waffled.  Some I went back to my peach and pineapple, and cup of tea.

After my first little faux pas in the ladies loos when I mistook a plastic coffee cup lid on the floor for a super cool stand-on toilet flusher, I regain my composure and the day began.

When we went down to the lobby the first person to zoom over was Susan Mann.  I felt really emotional as she’s become a close friend, a real rock, and she was actually a real life person now.  I felt completely overwhelmed as we had a big hug and I repeatedly said this is so odd, this is really strange.  I was watching myself from above cringing that I sounded like a dappy contestant entering the Big Brother house.

Now, when you put a large number of women in a hotel lobby together for the first time, having only had a virtual relationship before, sometimes for a year or more, there is gonna be some noise.  Queue being moved along by the hotel staff for being noisy and threatening to wake still sleeping guests.  You poor sods you, staying in an Ibis full of shrieking, hormonal, overly excited for a day all about them, women.

I stuck with Susan like a little lost puppy, and rudely gave the lovely Emma from Mellow Mummy a brief hello in the chaos of it all.  Luckily I got more time later to chat and talk with her, and she’s so, so nice.

We got in line to register and collect our goodie bags, and at the same time I had a long chat with Annabel Karmel who we’d met at Haven.  I dared ask if her doggies had been found after they were dog-napped, and luckily they had been, relief.  That would have been a conversation killer.  She’s really, really nice.  A very busy lady, but with plenty of time to chat.

An hour later and three cups of full caffeine tea (usually a decaf girl), things became more fuzzy, faster and slightly jittery.  I definitely agree with whoever said next year we need t-shirts with our names printed really big.  I had this constant fear of introducing myself to someone I ‘knew’ really well.

Another thing noted in one of the sessions was to avoid posts being too long.  I think I’ve failed on that one here. So I’ll move swiftly on to the highlights.

- Winning a Kodak PlaySport video camera.  And a further apology to That Kat for squishing a cupcake into her face in order for us both to win.  I did quite grasp the challenge Kodak had tweeted, and after launching myself at the stand shouting ‘cupcake cupcake’ was told that I had to share a cupcake with someone to win.  I was further corrected when I grabbed a Leapfrog cupcake from the neighbouring stand and directed to their own cupcakes labelled brightly ‘share’. Duh.  Anyway, we won, we won!  Pictures here and here!

- Spending time with people I’ve come to admire, respect and sometimes rely on.

- See all the hard work put in by so many people to bring this event together, especially Sian of Mummy Tips.

- It seemed my luck was in, and I won a copy of The Virtual Assistant Handbook when I sat at the lovely Nadine’s lunch table (businessmum).  I was lured in by the whooping and cheering, wondering if they had win under the table.  If I’ve ever met an infectiously funny and entertaining, as well smart and gorgeous person, then this was her.

- The crowd sourced keynote speakers were just unbelievable.  I can’t put it into words, but I was sure glad of the napkins strewn around our table.  And I was right to wear waterproof mascara.

- My luck was in AGAIN, and I won a copy of Tanya Ramsays cook book.  Brucey.  I know, too much luck can make a girl spoilt.  So, I’ve divvied up my swag bag to give away loads to friends.  Does that make it ok?!

- The chance afterwards to mingle and meet even more of the people who’s blogs I couldn’t live without.

- And of course, so importantly, Huggies for sponsoring me and making it  possible to go – like someone else said, you beamed from 8.30pm to 7pm when I finally hit the road, you did a brilliant job and we are all so grateful!  Can’t wait to see the pictures.

Just noticed the time, have been writing this for far too long – to see the incredible day in pictures visit the Cybermummy Flickr roundup.

Thanks again, and a huge hug to all of the other bloggers who made it such an important day at Cybermummy 2010!

My Cybermummy ticket was kindly paid for by Huggies . I stick to the bloggers with integrity code to only promote products and services that we truly, truly love.

p.s. Sorry for the stupid, trivial, ridiculous or abstract things I made have said to you at the start of the day, I was a little nervous and definitely don’t function normally on caffeine.

p.p.s Who else missed their children ridiculously that day?